Kilauea with Hughes MD500E

Flying over Kīlauea — Hawaii

In April 2016, Hélène and I travelled to Hawaii for three weeks of island hopping, visiting Maui, Kauai and Hawaiʻi, the Big Island. While staying on the Big Island, we crossed from Captain Cook to Hilo Airport for an adventure I had been particularly looking forward to: a helicopter flight over Kīlauea with Paradise Helicopters.

We had deliberately booked a flight in a Hughes MD 500E, and not just any sightseeing flight. This was an open-door helicopter, which meant exactly that: there was no window — and no door — between us and the extraordinary landscape below. For someone who has always been fascinated by flying, that alone made the experience special. Sitting beside an open doorway with the Hawaiian landscape passing directly beneath you creates an entirely different sensation from looking through the window of an ordinary helicopter.

But then we reached Kīlauea.

From the air we could see the enormous volcanic landscape stretching beneath us, with dark lava fields, craters and areas where the forces that created the Hawaiian Islands were still very much alive. We searched for the unmistakable glow of fresh lava and flew above places where volcanic activity was continually reshaping the landscape.

What I had not expected was how physical the experience would become.

With the doors removed, there was nothing to isolate us completely from what was happening below. As we flew over active areas, I could actually smell vegetation burning and feel the heat rising from the volcanic landscape beneath us. At that moment Kīlauea was no longer something I was simply looking at from a safe distance. I could see it, smell it and even feel it. The contrast was extraordinary. Around Kīlauea we saw a landscape created and destroyed by fire, while elsewhere on the windward side of the island the abundant rainfall had produced lush tropical vegetation and spectacular waterfalls.

From the helicopter, those two faces of Hawaiʻi — fire and water, destruction and creation — could be seen within a single flight. Because we were flying with the doors open, loose objects were strictly controlled for safety reasons. A camera or anything else escaping from the cabin could obviously create a serious hazard. But perhaps that was not such a bad thing. Instead of spending the entire flight looking through a camera, I could simply sit there and experience it.

I have made many memorable flights in my life — over Victoria Falls and the Zambezi, the Nazca Lines in Peru, in a Dakota DC-3 over Cuba and later in a microlight — but this one belongs among the very best.

Flying open-door above an active Hawaiian volcano, smelling the burning vegetation and feeling the heat risingfrom Kīlauea was something I will never forget.

For me, if you ever have the opportunity to experience Kīlauea from the air,
there is only one piece of advice:

Do it!